Cuticle Disruption: A Method to Collect Hemolymph from Drosophila Larvae

Abstract

Source: Reimels, T. A. and Pfleger, C. M. Methods to Examine the Lymph Gland and Hemocytes in Drosophila Larvae. J. Vis. Exp. (2016).

The Drosophila hemolymph serves as both blood and interstitial fluid, circulating throughout the body during the larva and adult stages. This video describes a protocol to collect larval hemolymph in order to quantify the circulating cells.

Protocol

This protocol is an excerpt from Reimels and Pfleger, Methods to Examine the Lymph Gland and Hemocytes in Drosophila Larvae, J. Vis. Exp. (2016).

1. Circulating Hemocyte Concentration

1. To obtain larvae of roughly the same developmental stage for this assay, restrict egg collection by allowing females to lay eggs for a fixed time period of 2 - 6 hr.
2. Collect larvae in dissecting dish wells filled with 1x phosphate buffered saline (PBS).
3. For each larva, place 10 µl 1x PBS in a microcentrifuge tube on ice and 10 µl 1x PBS on a clean dissecting pad. Place the dis....

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
PBS tablets	MP Biomedicals	2810305
dissecting dish	Corning	7220-85
microcentrifuge tube	Denville	C2170
silicone dissecting pad, made from Sylgard 184 kit	Krayden (distributed through Fisher)	NC9644388 (Fisher catalog number)	Made in petri dish by mixing components of Sylgard elastomer kit according to manufacturer instructions.
stereomicroscope	Morrell Instruments (Nikon distributor)	mna42000, mma36300	Nikon models SMZ1000 and SMZ645
tissue wipe	VWR	82003-820
forceps	Electron Microscopy Sciences	72700-DZ
p200 pipette	Eppendorf	3120000054
Countess Automated Cell Counter	Invitrogen	C10227
Countess cell counting chamber slides	Invitrogen	C10283
hemocytometer	Hausser Scientific	3200
trypan blue stain	Life Technologies	T10282